Dilemmas and Debates in Contemporary Policing - Literature review Example

?Book Review Book Hard cop, soft cop: Dilemmas and debates in contemporary policing Roger Hopkins Burke Synopsis The society has changed over time, the technological development coupled with the intense human interactions caused by both urbanization and modernization have collectively resulted in a unique social structures complete with their sets of social ills. The complexities of crime have equally changed thereby creating new societal demands for security. In his book, Hard cop, soft cop: Dilemmas and debates in contemporary policing, Roger Hopkins investigates the changes in the social demands for security and the attempt of the developed societies in the west to create safe secure environments for human habitation. In doing this, he arranges the book into sixteen chapters all of which offer progressive analysis to the two main policing approach: the “soft cop” policing technique as introduced by the 1990’s New York mayor and the soft cop policing technique counterpart. He analyses the two assessing their effectiveness in combatting the modern day crimes, which are equally dynamic. The different chapters discuss the efficacy of each of the policing techniques in curbing such modern crimes as stalking, financial crimes and theft crimes. Additionally, the author provides places his arguments in contemporary developed societies which best typify both modernism and the nature of the crimes thereby achieving great effectiveness in comparing the two policing techniques and their ability to combat crimes. Author’s key theoretical argument “Hard” policing refers to a policing technique that portrays zero tolerance to criminals. The approach to community policing propagates for scathing handling of criminals with the implementation of extremely punitive sentences to the convicted criminals as a means of curbing the spread of criminals. Soft policing on the other hand approaches policing as a means of restoring behaviors. The two have relative advantages and therefore applicable in different contexts, the modern society is dynamic and presents numerous security challenges. The author of the book thus alludes to the relative application of each of the two policing mechanisms. The effectiveness and preference of any of the two policing techniques is not readily evident, he however provides perfect examples, which would invoke the application of hard policing and further provides other perfect examples that would require soft policing. Scope of phenomena covered Just as explained earlier, the modern society has diverse security requirements. The dynamic lifestyles coerce unique security needs thereby the governments to formulate and implement diverse policing techniques. The most readily available and comply applicable policing techniques include the zero tolerance technique and the soft policing technique. The two are divergent approaches and therefore view policing differently. However, the author finds each relative relevance in the contemporary society since he considers specific attributes of the society and the modern types and natures of criminal activities. The development and the subsequent spread of the use of the internet have resulted in the proliferation of cybercrimes in the modern society. The internet for example provides users with specific anonymity features, which enables the successful execution of the crimes. In addressing such modern society crimes, the author uses developed societies in the west including the United Kingdom, Germany, and other examples of police systems in the United States of America. The developed countries exemplify contemporary societies. They have unique security requirements as they present their citizens with diverse possibilities that thereby necessitate the execution of crimes. The choice to use developed countries thus provide the author with the ability to observe the developing trends in crimes thereby the different security requirements most of which necessitate the type of policing technique considered effective in addressing every case. Modern society crimes revolve around certain social factors, the two approaches view redress to such factors differently depending on the context of the criminal activities. Additionally, the choice of the author to use developed countries measures the abilities of such economies to implement the policies they formulate. Developed countries have stronger economies therefore the capability to implement any policy they would formulate; the study into the police service in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States of America therefore exposes some of the operational discrepancies that the police service face. It further compares the prevalent of such in the underdeveloped countries in Africa and other parts of the world. Illustrative examples Soft cop is a policing strategy that seeks redress to the prevalence of crimes; the technique employs the strategy to rehabilitate criminals thereby resulting in safer societies that accommodates both the criminals and their victims. The approach to policing seeks to determine the common courses of crime; it investigates the social reasons for the prevalent of certain crimes and their possible mitigation. It encourages interactions between police officers and the populace in order to determine the crime patterns. Furthermore, the policing technique views jails as rehabilitation centers which purposely reform criminals before reintroducing them into the society to live among the rest of the society. With this understanding, the police investigate and understand the nature of the most common crimes and design the best mechanism of mitigating their occurrence through effective dialogues necessitated through the interactions. The The approach is effective in handling juvenile criminals who understandably have longer to live and therefore exhibit higher propensity of reentering the society. The police should therefore develop the most effective mechanism of handling juvenile criminals with the view of enabling them appreciate their criminal acts, take responsibility of the crimes, and more importantly learn from such mistakes. The hard cop approach on the other hand adopts a zero tolerance approach to crime and stipulates stringent punitive measures against criminals. Through this policing technique, police officers view jails as punishments for the crimes and may therefore use force as a means of instilling fear in the criminals thereby discouraging the prevalence of any crime. The zero tolerance approach to policing is more effective in curbing crime since it instills fear in the possible criminals thus discouraging such from taking part in criminal activities. The policy dictates that the police determine the best modes of punishments for the different crimes in the contemporary; just as the soft cop approach, it exhibits relative advantages. Evaluation In retrospect, the author develops effective discussion by providing relevant examples to the different policing techniques thereby making the understanding of the concepts in his book easier. The book addresses the issues chronologically with each chapter covering a topic exhaustively before providing a relevant linkage to the next. This way, the ideas in the book thus flow seamlessly. The author uses simple words and easily understandable sentence structures, he shuns the use of jargons a feature that contributes to the ease of understanding the book. The book is interesting, relevant to different groups in the society and a must read for political science students. Reference BURKE, R. H. (2004). Hard cop, soft cop: dilemmas and debates in contemporary policing. Cullompton, Willan. Read More